Nuweland Gallery

Making its VOLTA debut, Nuweland Gallery cultivates the growth and development of South Africa based artists. The works of Morné Visagie, Sanell Aggenbach, Pierre Fouché are visceral in the rich textures inherent to their respective techniques and contemplate elements of the natural world.

Sanell Aggenbach, “New Order no.17,” 2021
Oil on Paper (framed)
100 x 70 cm
Image Courtesy of Sanell Aggenbach

 

 

 

 

How does the philosophy of your gallery align with the vision of VOLTA?

For this to answer we should actually step back to the first initial idea to starting our gallery.  This happened when lived in Cape Town and discovered the vibrant and dynamic art scene of South Africa. We experienced this as a genuine discovery. Working and living in Cape Town and connecting with its community we immediately felt the urge to try and share what we found within Europe.  So to track back from VOLTA’s mission on “Discover,” “Connect,”  and “Collect,” we believe that art is a bridge that eradicates cultural divides and combats isolation.  Art is a conductor, allowing energy to flow from one place to another.  Through art, Nuweland seeks to stimulate cultural growth, evolution and change.

 

 

 

 

 

Is this your first year exhibiting with VOLTA? If so, what are you most looking forward to?

Yes, this will be our first time participating at VOLTA Basel.  We are looking forward to step into a new world, a bigger world, one of the centers of the art world.  Participating at VOLTA is a great opportunity to present our artist that we feel very confident about. Especially after such a long time of no physical art fairs taking place.

 

 

 

 

In what ways did your gallery change over the past year? How did you maintain a connection with your collectors and artists? Will these changes remain a part of your gallery moving forward?

During the course of the pandemic we took the opportunity to get in conversation with our artists.  During this process we have re-established our mission and vision of our gallery.  This has led to our new gallery manifest. We have managed to work on our foundation in the form of a new website which allows us to have a broader archival documentation opportunity.  Through these conversation we also were able to achieve a better understanding of our role as gallerists towards Southern African artists.  And the function we could have in the bigger African contemporary art constellation.  This has resulted into an artist- in-residence program in our gallery which is located on the countryside in the north of the Netherlands.  We have been able to create a studio space where we can invite artists to spend time to work or do research.  This brings it back to art is a bridge. We aim to be a safe haven for artists.  We can definitely say that our connection and bond with our artists has strengthened due to this Covid period.  On the flip side, as a young gallery we did get hindered in our momentum of reaching new collectors. Luckily we have been able  to connect ourselves to online art platforms.  But needless to say, the physical connection with collectors has been a challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Featured Image:

Sanell Aggenbach,” New Order no.16,” 2021
Oil on Paper (framed)
100 x 70 cm
Image Courtesy of Sanell Aggenbach